The real grass roots


And why candidates keeping making the wrong calls
I ran across this one on Hugh Hewitt.

Markos Moulitsas and I disagree on a lot of things. I even think his taste in baseball teams leaves a lot to be desired. But we do agree on a piece of contrarian wisdom that goes against everything the Beltway establishment holds dear.

In the Beltway’s eyes, Markos leads a movement of progressives in the blogosphere. But this is inaccurate, and Markos would be the first to tell you so. Markos doesn’t lead the movement. He stands in front of it and is symbolic of it, but the movement’s direction and interests flow directly from the people who compose it. The movement is a bottom-up thing, not something that a guy leads from the top.

It’s probably comforting for Democratic politicians to believe that Markos leads the movement in the progressive blogosphere. That being the case, all they have to do is soothe the savage breasts of Markos and other rabble-rousing bloggers and then get back to business as usual. That’s why Democratic politicians are so unfailingly solicitous of the liberal bloggers.

But it doesn’t work like that. If Markos came out tomorrow and said he’s supporting Hillary, the people who read his blog would tell him to pound sand. They would keep reading his blog, but they wouldn’t open their hearts or their wallets for Hillary.

CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO has the same kind of dynamic. The people who listen to conservative talk have their own views, and they are extremely well informed ones at that. They listen to conservative talk because they hear opinions that are friendly to their political and personal philosophies. Listeners also tune in to conservative talk because, unlike liberal talk, conservative talk shows are fun and entertaining.

Good point. It's a bottom up movement, not top down. I think that is why the national candidates are so disconnected from what their base wants. They are used to issuing orders, not to listening to what people want.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - July 3, 2007 at 05:48 AM  Tag


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